


Mabel's Guide to Apologies

by FreightTrainFrank



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Bittersweet, Canon Divergence - Weirdmageddon, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ghosts, done as a request for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 01:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8824912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreightTrainFrank/pseuds/FreightTrainFrank
Summary: Done as a request for me by skeltorific on tumblr, who asked me to post it here because they don't have an account on this site. In this story, Mabel doesn't survive Weirdmageddon, but her spirit remains.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic was done for me by skeletorific on tumblr. I'm posting this here with their permission, and they also gave me permission to edit a few things. Overall, I really liked this story, and I hope you will too.

"ALRIGHT, FORD, TIME'S ALMOST UP!"

Mabel was being squeezed so tight she thought that she might pop open at any moment, but she struggled as hard as she could against the giant fingers crushing her. She kicked, punched, and Dipper did the same, but it seemed no use: Bill's grasp was like concrete.

"I'VE GOT THE KIDS!" The triangle said. "I THINK I'M GONNA KILL ONE OF THEM, JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT!"

At first, it didn't sink in what he had just said: they were too focused on fighting. But a red light was flashing around them, and they could hear him chanting in a sing-song voice.

"EENIE"

A pine tree symbol was glowing in black and red in the massive eye of the chaos demon. Wait…

"MEENIE"

A shooting star…oh no, oh _no_.

"MINEY" A pine tree again.

Dipper grabbed her arm, as if he could protect her against _this_. As if it was just another monster they were hunting this summer.

A shooting star lit up in his eyes and his hand raised up. "YOU-"

Mabel screwed her eyes shut just as a voice called out "WAIT!"

When she opened them, Great-Uncle Ford was looking Bill Cipher dead in the eye. "I surrender!"

Bill's eye returned to a pupil and his hand lowered. Mabel breathed a deep, relieved sigh of air.

"GOOD CHOICE." Bill said, dropping them like dolls on the stone floor, adding new members to the newly formed family of bruises on Mabel's body. The two of them stood up and ran to Ford and Stan's cage, desperate to reach them.

"Great-Uncle Ford, you can't-!"

"BUT, YOU KNOW WHAT?" Bill said. "I BET YOU THINK I WAS BLUFFING. I THINK I'LL PROVE I WASN'T"

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, Ford and Stan both screaming out "no!" Mabel turned around to see Bill's finger pointing, charged with magic.

Directly.

At.

"DIPPER!" she screamed, shoving her brother out of the way before her body was seized with a searing pain.

"MABEL!"

When Mabel was three years old, she had stuck a fork in an electric socket. Her body had seized up and shuddered uncontrollably, an agonizing burning sensation covered her from head to foot. Her parents had pulled her away before anything too serious happened, but she had never forgotten the pain.

This was like she had shoved her _braces_ into that socket.

She screamed.

Three voices in one "MABEL! MABEL NO!"

It felt like it lasted forever, but suddenly it stopped as she fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Dipper was at her side, cradling her head, shaking her shoulders, as she struggled to focus. Her feet felt cold and heavy, and the sensation was creeping along her calves.

Ford was pounding at the walls of the cage, zapped with every strike but coming back with renewed force. Stan was on his knees, screaming her name in a tone that was barely human. Bill laughed, high and manic, somersaulting backwards through the air.

"OH, THIS IS JUST RICH!" He cackled, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "LOOKS LIKE SHOOTING STAR IS GONNA FINALLY FALL!"

"Mabel!" Dipper screamed. "Mabel, are you okay?"

Mabel looked down at her feet…and suddenly realized why they were so numb.

They were turning to stone. And it was spreading, spreading rapidly up her legs.

She looked up at Dipper, who was looking at her legs with wide eyes. He was white as paper, and his voice shook slightly. "Mabel…you're gonna be fine, alright? I can-I can fix this."

"Dipper…" Tears were welling up in her eyes. _I don't want to die, I don't want to die!_ "Dipper, I'm sorr-"

"Mabel, don't talk! We can fix this! I can-" His mouth was moving but words couldn't form. "I can-!"

"Dipper, you can't fix this!" she said, as the saltwater poured out of her eyes. The stone virus was nearly at her waist now, and her heart was racing, like it wanted to beat as much as possible before…before…

"LOOKS LIKE YOU BETTER CUT THAT DEAL FAST, FORDSY!" Bill said, leaning back to take in the scene. "OR PINETREE'S NEXT."

"MABEL!" Ford screamed. "MABEL!"

Stan was bawling, words unable to form past the tears.

Mabel took a deep breath, for a brief moment a sudden calm seizing over her. "Dipper, I…" she blinked hard, trying to choke back a sob. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I let Bill trick me, it's my fault this all happened!"

"Mabel, it's not your fault!" Dipper yelled. He couldn't even look her in the eye. "I shouldn't have told Ford that I-I should've-I- "he broke down into massive sobs. "Don't leave me." He said. "Please. Don't leave me."

"Hey," she said quietly, putting a hand to his face. "Don't get all weepy on me now, brobro. Girls don't like a crybaby." Dipper turned to look at her, with absolute agony in his eyes. "It'll be okay." She said, trying to smile and not look like she was scared out of her mind.

The stone spread up to her stomach, and she gasped with pain. She turned her head to look at Ford and Stan.

"Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, I-" she swallowed as hard as she could. "I love you guys, so much!"

"MABEL!" Ford said. "Stay with me, sweetie, okay? Don't you die on me!"

 _Sweetie? Since when has Great-Uncle Ford…?_ Suddenly she realized that one of the fingers on his gloves looked pretty floppy, and she smiled with secret realization. _Grunkle Stan, you rapscallion._ "Take care of Waddles for me, okay?! Make sure he get his walks…and his milk…and someone rubs his cute lil pig tummy every day, okay? Promise!"

Ford/Stan looked like he had been punched in the gut, but he nodded even as the tears sprang to his eyes. "I'll do it, sweetie. I…" he rubbed his eyes fiercely and turned away. "I promise."

As the stone reached the tips of her lungs, and breathing became a painful exercise, Bill gave an impatient sigh. "WHAT A TOUCHING FAMILY SCENE. BUT TICK TOCK, SIXER. WHAT DO YOU SAY WE GET STARTED?" His hand was held out, alive with blue flames.

Stan/Ford clenched his fist, looking like he was holding back a string of words that Mabel would have charged to her swear jar. "I'll do it." He said through his teeth.

"GOOD CHOICE."

Mabel realized she only had a few more minutes. "Beat him." She said to Dipper. "Use that big nerd brain of your and beat him, okay? For me."

Dipper nodded, grabbing her hand. "Sure thing, sis."

Mabel smiled, letting her eyes droop slightly. She was so tired…so tired of fighting…

The stone reached her heart, causing a massive pain to erupt in her chest, almost like she was having a heart attack. It was hard to focus on anything as she started getting drowsier. Soon, the stone spread over her eyes and ears, leaving her effectively blind and deaf. As the stone spread over her entire body, Mabel had lost all five senses, leaving her with nothing to do but think.

_I deserve this, don't I..._

_At least Dipper got to live. At least I was able to do something useful._

_I hope he's still alive, at least._

_I hope the world isn't gonna end just because I'm a stupid, selfish little brat._

_I deserve this._

Mabel had no perception of the outside world, so she had no idea how long it had been. It could be minutes, hours, days, maybe even more. At some point, she realized she could feel something. It was a sharp, cracking pain that was spreading all over her body. Whatever it was, it seemed to be coming from multiple places at once.

Suddenly, an intense, shattering, pain appeared all over her entire body at once. It lasted an instant, and then she was no more.


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel woke up with a start, gasping for air.

"Di-!" her voice died in her throat. Where was she?

She was lying on a huge bed, circular, with a neon pink comforter of faux fur. There were stuffed animals all around her, big enough to pick her up if they could move, all with friendly smiles and soft-looking textures.

For a brief moment Mabel was afraid that she was back in the Bubble, but…no. The air in her bubble had always felt wrong, even when she had wanted to stay there. Like it was so coated in sugar that it was barely oxygen. The air here felt pure, clean, almost lighter than normal. The colors were bright, yes, but not eye-bleedingly so, and no eighties synth pop in the background.

Also, no random chinchillas and no Dippy Fresh, so it was probably okay.

Mabel got up, looking all around the room. It was stuffed with toy and posters, not just of boy bands (she had kind of grown past them since the Sev'ral Timez incident) but of kittens, neon patterns and artsy stuff. Like the room she had always wanted back home.

"Where am I?"

There was a tapping sound from behind her, and her head whipped around. No one in the room.

Tap tap tap

It was coming from the heavy curtains to her left. Mabel pulled them open to reveal a window, with a huge, irisless black eye staring in at her.

"AAAUGH!" She screamed, toppling backwards in her haste to get away.

"Oh good, you're finally up!" A booming voice said, the eye crinkling a bit at the edges like it was smiling. "Come on out!" A blur of white, scaly skin flashed before the window, and it was gone.

Mabel got up, threw open the window, and looked out into…space.

No, really, it looked like space. Well, more like a nebula. She had seen some pictures in Dipper's book while she was snooping through his stuff, and it looked just like that. Massive clouds of gases in every color of the rainbow, with distant start lighting it up. Occasionally a meteorite would pass by. Somehow, she was able to breathe, but that wasn't the weirdest thing about the moment

The weirdest thing was the giant, floating, grinning, oddly familiar lizard hovering a few feet away.

"Wait…Axolotl?!"

"That's me!" the lizard said. "Come on, out, the space dust's fine!"

Mabel leaned out the window, and realized she could float too. Not only that, she realized shortly after that she could fly. She performed a few experimental dives, giggling slightly.

"Wait, what the heck's happening? What the heck's going on? Where in the name of Quentin Trembley am I?"

"Wow, rude." The Axolotl said. "You didn't even let me do my speech about how you only get one question."

"I've got too many questions for that. Can you make an exception?"

The Axolotl gave a deep sigh. "Fine. Not like I've got anything better to do, I guess. Fire away."

"First: Where the heck am I? Second: how can I breathe in space? And third…" she squinted long and hard at the Axolotl. "Did you do something with your antenna-things? They look different since the last time I saw you."

"Really?" The Axolotl said, touching them self-consciously. "I had them touched up last week. Just wanted to try something. Does it look okay?"

Mabel winked and made finger guns. "Killin' it, gurl."

It blushed and smiled. Then it cleared its throat. "In reference to your other questions, this isn't space. It's the afterlife."

"Um..heh heh." She said, digging her hands in her ears. "Must have space dust in my ear or something. Thought you said, 'afterlife'."

"Oh, well, you're okay then, because that's what I said.'

"After…life?" she said, her voice squeaking slightly.

"Yup."

"I…I'm dead?"

It looked around for a minute. "Must be, I guess."

"No…no, I can't be dead!" Mabel said, clutching her head. "I…the last thing I remember, Dipper and I were running, and Bill…" Suddenly it was all coming back in flashes. "Bill…" The pain, the stone, Stan. Ford. _Dipper_.

"Oh no." she said in a quiet voice. "Oh no. oh no oh no oh no."

"You, uh…" The Axolotl looked uncomfortable. "You doing okay, kid?"

Tears were welling up in her eyes. This was too much to process all at once.

"Um, hey… why don't I show you around, huh?" It cocked its head slightly, looking at her with concern. "Lots of afterlife to explore!"

"I…" Mabel took a deep breath, trying desperately not to cry. "I think I'm gonna lay down for a bit. Maybe later."

The Axolotl paused for a minute. "Um…okay. Call me when you're ready." And with a wave of his giant tail, he was gone.

Mabel dog-paddled her way back to the window and came back in, throwing herself on the bed and sobbing into her pillow. She couldn't form an articulate thought, couldn't think her way through the sadness. She just kept crying and crying, until eventually she fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The next few…days? Weeks? It was hard to know. Either way, it became easier. After a couple of good, hard crying sessions and finally accepting that she was, in fact, dead, she had finally emerged from her room, eyes still red, but face set. She was Mabel Pines, gosh darn it, and no matter how bad things got…she was going to find a sunny side to it.

The Axolotl took her all around the afterlife. It was pretty cool, actually. Floating was a little like swimming, so that was fun. When she got tired, she would ride around on its back. Its scales were so pretty that she couldn't resist turning them into an art project. It didn't seem to mind, and she spent two whole days painting intricate designs on its back and legs in bright pinks and neon greens and every other color she could find. And a whole lot of glitter. And all the scratch and sniff stickers she could muster.

That was the thing about the afterlife: if she wanted something, chances were pretty good on her finding it. It wasn't like the Bubble, where it would appear in her hands the instant she even thought of it. She would ask the Axolotl, and it would point her in the general direction. She had to find it on her own. Mabel didn't mind: it was a little bit like a treasure hunt, and it gave her something to do and see. She spent some time looking for food and stuff. The Axolotl told her she didn't really need to eat, but it was sort of a hard habit to break. Especially when she found out about the lake-size bowl of whipped cream.

Mabel also got pretty good at working with the space gases. She could zoom around them and make them into any shape she wanted, a little bit like that magic clay guy from back home. She didn't do faces or people anymore though. Too much like…like statues. No matter how happy a face she made, they always looked like they were screaming to her, and she would have to either smash it or start crying again.

So she did other stuff. Stars. Flowers. Clocks. One time a fez. And one other time…a giant pine tree.

That had been a bad day.

That had been the day she had finally decided to explore other areas of her house in the stars. There were other rooms, other places besides her own. A living room, a kitchen, a bathroom…and a bunch of locked doors that wouldn't open, no matter what she tried. The Axolotl never explained what they were, but she had figured it out.

They were for the others. When they died, that would be their rooms.

Mabel had tried to cheer herself up, thinking about the good times they'd have when they joined her. All the places she could show Dipper. But crashing down on her was the knowledge that it was probably going to be _years_. Not that she wanted the others to die, or anything like that, but it would still get lonely spending years rattling by herself in an empty house, with nothing but a giant lizard to keep her company.

Not that Axxie wasn't cool. Always there to talk to. But it didn't understand her the way she needed to be understood. Axxie had always been this way, floating from place to place, no family, only a bunch of random people who might be its friends, might not be. It didn't really understand loneliness as a concept, and it didn't really understand the things she sobbed at night.

She had also taken the time to get used to being dead. It was an odd thing to think about. Not very long ago, she was a twelve-year old little girl with her whole life ahead of her. Now she was a twelve-year old little girl who was most assuredly dead. Dead, deceased, gone, passed away, done in, no longer alive, croaked, deader than a doornail. Her real body was nothing but a statue, assuming it even still existed, and all that was left of her was her soul, or spirit, or whatever it was called. "Dead" just wasn't a word she thought would apply to herself any time soon, and yet here she was.

It felt like she was never going to see her friends, her family again. Like she was never going to talk to Grenda, Candy, Ford, Stan, or her parents ever again. If she could just see Dipper again, see that dumb old face of his and hear that stupid voice geeking out about his stupid monsters-

Wait. She _could_ hear him. It was really faint, but…

"Dipper?"

"Axolotl." It said.

"No, SHHHH!" she said, waving him silent. There it was again, distant but definitely there. "IT'S DIPPER!" She said, dog-paddling her way towards the sound.

The Axolotl came alongside her. "I don't hear anything."

"Listen!"

It was becoming little more clear, a little more distinct. "I just…miss her so much."

"Huh, he must be standing by your grave." The Axolotl said. "Guess they finally buried you."

"I can hear people who are by my grave?!"

"Sure, see 'em too." It grabbed her hand in its weird lizard fingers and started pulling her along. "Come on, I'll show ya."

Mabel let herself be steered by it, straining to hear every word of what was spoken.

"I do too, buddy." A female voice. It was Wendy, she thought. "But she…she sacrificed herself so that you could be safe. Pretty dang heroic, if you ask me."

"Yeah. My sister the hero." Dipper's voice sounded like that smile you do when you're trying not to cry.

There was a long silence, and Mabel squirmed with impatience. Say something, anything.

"We should…be getting back." Wendy said.

_NO! NO, DON'T GO, I HAVE TO SEE YOU._

"Could we…could I be alone with her? For a while?"

"Sure thing, bud." A smack of flesh on flesh and a soft grunt. She must've buddy punched him. "I'll see you back at the Shack, okay?"

"Sure."

"Here we are!" The Axolotl said, coming to a stop in what looked like a bright, gaping tear. "Just look in there. You should be able to see whatever's going on."

Mabel didn't even thank him, she just dived for the edge and clutched the edges of the rip like her life depended on it.

Dipper was sitting cross-legged in a patch of dirt, waving too someone she couldn't see. Everything was blurry and sepia, like an old-timey photograph, but even with the distortion she could tell he looked terrible. Judging by the massive circles around his eyes and the ring of moisture on his shirt collar, he hadn't slept in the past few nights. He was staring intently at the ground.

"Hey, sis." He said in a tired, but falsely bright voice. "Been a few weeks. I thought…Thought I'd catch you up.

"Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of walking teeth and evil triangles, we did it. We beat Bill. Everything's back to normal. You're probably wondering why I'm still here, but…after what happened, Mom and Dad told me to stay put. They're going to be here tomorrow, for the fune-…for the…" he stopped, pausing a minute to collect himself.

"Dipper…" she said softly.

"Yeah, guess the cat's out of the bag about everything that's been going on this summer." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "Great-Uncle Ford had to call them and explain about…well, you, and Stan, and everything.

"Oh, yeah, speaking of Stan, I guess you don't know, huh? That's how we beat him, it was the coolest thing. Grunkle Stan and Great-Uncle Ford swapped clothes and tricked Bill into entering Stan's mind instead of Ford's. Then, Ford used McGucket's memory gun to wipe him out. Bill's gone for good…we think. Only problem is, he had to wipe out Grunkle Stan's memories to do it."

Mabel gasped.

"Don't worry!" Dipper said, like he heard her. "Don't worry, he's fine. Getting his memories back, even. Your scrapbook's actually been super helpful. Guess I never should've made fun of it. He's been doing really well. Only problem is that he's had to remember…remember what happened. He's been pretty…pretty…"

Whatever had been keeping Dipper together in that moment, it suddenly dissolved around him, and he broke down into massive sobs, getting louder and louder. Mabel's face crumpled as she started to cry to.

"Sorry it took so long." He said, sniffling slightly and trying to tap it down. "To bury you. After Weirdmageddon ended, we went to look for you but…your statue broke up into a bunch of pieces, and they got scattered everywhere. We…looked for them, but it took a while to find all the…pieces." He wiped his eyes. "Gonna be honest. I didn't sleep too well that night. None of us did. I haven't slept well since it happened. I keep…going over it in my mind. What I should've done. What I could've said. What I-…shit…" Mabel started slightly at the swear.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he said softly, his eyes screwed shut. He punched the ground with each word like a violent punctuation. "I'm so, so sorry Mabel, I…it's all my fault. I should never have left you alone that day, I should've come with you to hand out the invitations, I could've gone with Ford another day! Then we wouldn't have had that fight, Weirdmageddon wouldn't have happened, and you'd still…shit!" He gave a gasping sob. "I miss you so much, Mabel."

"Dipper!" she said, pounding at the tear. It boomed like glass where she hit it, but he couldn't see or hear her. No, she had to reach him!

"I want to talk to him!" she said.

"Um…that's not exactly how it works…"

"Come on, you're a giant space lizard that can talk, for crying out loud! There has to be a way I can talk to him."

"I-"

"What about a ghost? I know that's a thing! I could come back as a ghost, and-"

"Mabel, not all the pieces are in your grave. If you went back, you'd be stuck within a quarter mile radius of your burial ground forever…"

"I don't care, send me back!" Mabel yelled, the tears welling up in her eyes. "Send me back, please!"

The Axolotl studied her for a moment, and then shrugged. "Alright, here's the deal. You can go back. And when your brother reaches the end of his life, you'll return with him. But if you go too far from your remains, you'll be stuck back here for good, alright? I don't want to hear any of this, 'oh Axolotl, you didn't tell me, I want to go back! Oh Axolotl, it was an accident, send me back again, I got distracted and went to eat a mushroom!' Bringing people back as manifested extraplanal spirits is exhausting, and I don't want to waste more moon beam dimensional energy than I have to."

"I don't know what any of that last thing was, but you've got a deal, pal!" Mabel said, sticking out her hand.

The Axolotl seemed startled by her enthusiasm, but smiled. "I'm gonna miss you, Mabel. Or not. I am a giant space demi-god lizard. I can basically do whatever I want. So that's gonna ease the ache. But hey, see you around."

"See you around, you big ol' lizard sweetheart." Mabel grinned.

The Axolotl touched her hand, and she felt filled with light. Her vision became brighter and brighter, until-


	4. Chapter 4

She woke up with a soft gasp, hovering a foot or two above the ground.

Dipper was crying too hard to notice, giving her a second to take in her surroundings. She was in a small forest clearing, one that she recognized: it was really close to the Shack. Birds were singing in the trees, and the wind rushed through the trees.

She felt really really light, like how she had always imagined a balloon might feel. She couldn't exactly feel the wind, couldn't exactly smell dirt, but she had a vague impression of both.

"Dipper?"

He kept sobbing, not hearing her.

"Dipper?" she said, a little louder.

His head jerked up like she had pulled it on a string, and he jumped backwards. "AAAUGH!"

Mabel laughed. "Just me, you dork!"

"M..Mabel?"

She nodded, her face split into so big a grin it felt like it might split in half.

For a moment Dipper just stared in disbelief. Then he broke into a big smile, his eyes filled with tears again. "MABEL!" He yelled, jumping at her to hug-

Only to phase right through her and plant face first into her tombstone.

"Whoops!" she said. "Sorry, forgot I'm full on ghosting. Hang on." This was a trick she had learned in the afterlife, a way of making her body more solid so she could 'drop' in midair. "There we go!"

Dipper got up, rubbing his face a bit where he had hit it, but he pulled her into a giant hug. Even though she couldn't totally feel his warmth, she could feel the pressure of his arms, wrapped tight around her like he never wanted to let go. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Mabel!" he was sobbing into her shoulder. "It's all my fault! It... it should've been me."

"Don't say that!" said Mabel. "You deserve to live so much more than I do. It's all my fault the world almost ended, a-and if you... if you died, that would have been all my fault too, and I don't think I'd be able to live with myself." Ghostly tears started to form in her eyes as she muttered "Least I got what I deserved." hopefully too quietly for Dipper to hear.

"Please don't blame yourself." said Dipper. "You would have known if I told you. I'm just so sorry!"

"Hey," Mabel said gently, patting his shoulders. "What have you got to be sorry for?"

Dipper pulled away a little bit to face her. "I was the one who chased you away. I got so obsessed with Ford, with the journals and the mysteries, that I forgot about the one person who mattered the most. If I hadn't gone with Ford to the ship-"

"I told you it was fine to go with Ford, maybe if I had just gone with you-"

"If I had explained what the rift was-"

"If I had listened to you in the first place-"

"If I hadn't almost abandoned you-"

"Maybe none of this would have happened." They said at the same time. A brief pause. "Jinx!" They said simultaneously. Mabel shoved Dipper's shoulder and they both laughed. It wasn't that funny, but for a minute neither of them could stop. It just felt…so good to be doing this again. To be talking, laughing, joking.

"Dipper," Mabel said once she had calmed down a bit. "You've got nothing to be sorry for. Of course you wanted to go with Ford. You're both big nerds and you like the same nerd stuff. I should've respected that. And… I was the one who played right into Bill's hands." She pulled a piece of her hair into her hands and started to twist it, focusing on it so she wouldn't have to look at him. There was a pale blue tinge to it now that she was a ghost. "You would've seen that it was too good to be true. You would've seen it coming a mile away, but…I wanted to believe him. I wanted things to just…stay the same. So I let him use me, and I put everyone in danger, just because I was a little scared about high school."

"I-"

"Let me finish." She said. "You're always the one making sacrifices, Dipper. You've given up on the stuff you cared about how many times, just so I could chase down some guy? Just this summer alone, I ruined your chances with Wendy for Waddles, I made you lose your job so I could free Mermando, I almost left you without a body forever just for a chance to impress that puppet guy, and I nearly ended the world just because you wanted to go out and do something with your life! I was selfish, I've always been selfish, and if the one thing I could manage to do for you was…was dying, then-"

"Hey, hey!" Dipper said grabbing her shoulders. "Look at me." She kept staring to the side. "Mabel, look at me!"

She looked at him, and saw his eyes were filling up with tears. "Don't talk like that, okay? Who's been my partner on all these crazy adventures? Who always went with me no matter how dangerous it got?"

"Dipper-"

"Who told me to be honest with Wendy, even though if it were up to me I'd have dragged it out all summer? Who saved us with that grappling hook? Who helped Soos get the girl of his dreams? Who believed Grunkle Stan even though I was screaming for you to shut it off? Who stopped Bill when he possessed my body? Who's always been there for every single person in the Shack, to make us laugh even when we don't want to?"

"That's not sacrifice!" Mabel said. "I just did those things! It didn't cost me anything!"

"So what?!" he said. "It didn't have to cost you, it still mattered! It still made life better for everyone! So what if you're selfish, everyone is! What matters is you're there for us, and you always have been! You're always there, always making me happy even though I'm always looking for the worst in life. Everything I sacrificed, I did because I couldn't stand the thought of you not smiling too!"

"I-"

Dipper thrust his wrists into her face. There were still scars there, fainter now, but still visible. "You're not the only one Bill tricked, Mabel. He was a liar, it was what he was good at. He tricked Ford by telling him about how great he was, how he deserved to know more than everyone else. He tricked me kind of the same way. At least you were tricked for good reasons. You just wanted more time with the people and places you loved!" Dipper stopped, taking a few deep breaths. He looked angry, but also strangely relieved, like he had just said something he'd been aching to say for a long time.

Mabel's eyes filled with tears. "You…really think that about me?"

Dipper looked surprised, and then nodded. "Course. Of course I do." He said in a hoarse voice. "That's why it…its been so hard these past couple weeks. Cause I thought…I'd never get a chance to say sorry to you."

"I thought I'd never get to say sorry to _you_!"

Dipper smiled, rubbing the back of his head. "Guess we both had stuff we need to apologize for. We were both pretty stupid, huh?"

Mabel nodded, smiling softly. "Promise we won't be that stupid again?"

"I'll never be stupider than you, dum-dum."

Mabel snorted. "Alright, stupid." She smiled slightly. "Apologetic sibling hug?"

"Apologetic sibling hug." They wrapped their arms around each other. "Pat! Pat!"

"I still don't regret sacrificing myself for you." said Mabel.

"Wasn't trying to make you regret it." said Dipper.

They sat there for a long moment, just holding each other.

"So," Dipper said as they released. "What do we do now?"

"Well, according to the Axolotl, I have to stay pretty close to here, so I guess this is where I'm chilling for the rest of your life."

"Axo-you know what, never mind." Dipper shook his head. "How far from your grave can you go?"

"I think he said a quarter mile. On the plus side, I should be able to visit the Shack still."

"You're okay with this?"

She shrugged. "It is what it is." She poked at his stomach. "Means I get to hang out and bug you for a loooooong time."

"And…how long can you stay?"

"I go out with you, bro. So try and stick around for a while, okay?"

Dipper smiled. "Sure thing." He looked at the sky, thinking for a bit. "Mom and Dad shouldn't be a problem. They mentioned once on the phone that they were thinking about moving up here. After everything they'd heard…they felt like somebody needed to keep a close eye on Grunkle Stan and Ford. Now that you're here, they're definitely gonna want to stay."

"Speaking of Great-Uncle Ford…" Mabel put a hand on his. "I think you should do that apprentice thing with him."

He looked shocked. "What? No, Mabel, I'm not going anywhere, not while you're stuck here-"

Mabel shook her head. "Not a chance, Dipstick. Look, you're not abandoning me this time. I don't have anything to be scared about anymore. I'm here, with a whole townful of people who understand what I went through. No way am I gonna let you sit in a patch full of dirt for the rest of our lives just cause I got stupid. You gotta use that big brain of yours for something."

"But-"

"Plus," she smiled into his face. "It's gonna get pretty boring with both of us just being stuck here. So go out there, have some adventures, and tell me the stories, alright?"

Dipper hesitated. She could see in his eyes that there was a part of him that really really wanted to say yes, but…"You'd be okay on your own?"

"You kidding?! There's a whole bunch of stuff I can do now! I can bug the gnomes, float around the Shack…ooh, I could even haunt Gideon!"

Dipper laughed.

"Well, maybe not right away. He did help us out, I guess. But still, tons of possibilities for the late Miss Mabel Pines. So no more talking, you just tell Great-Uncle Ford that you're going with him!"

Dipper smiled softly. "Thanks, Mabel." He said, finally. "It..it really means a lot to me that you're okay with this."

"Don't get too sappy on me." She said, punching his arm. "Betcha he brings you back in a week cause you talk in your sleep."

"I do not!"

"Do too. 'Oh Wendy, kiss me! Tell me again how smart I am, mwah mwah mwah!'"

"Remind me again why I missed you."

"You love me."

Dipper wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Yeah, I do." As she smiled though, he suddenly pulled her into a noogie. "Love to mess with you, that is!"

"Aaaagh, no!" she shrieked. Suddenly she remembered, and phased out of his arms and into the air, out of his reach.

"No fair!" he yelled.

"Hey, kid, you planning on coming back, or-" A voice came from directly behind Mabel and stopped abruptly. She turned her head.

Standing a few feet away were Stan, Ford, Wendy, and Soos. All of them looked tired, with huge dark circles under their eyes and pale skin. Stan in particular looked terrible. He hadn't shaved in a few days and it didn't look like he had showered either.

Mabel thought she'd never seen anything better.

"M-Mabel?" Ford said. Wendy's looked shocked for about half a second and then her face split into a massive grin. Soos just started gasping over and over, punctuating each one with a "dude!". Stan…Stan kept rubbing his eyes, like he was trying to convince himself she was real.

"GUYS!" she screamed, charging headlong into Stan's chest (remembering just in time to make herself a little more solid.)

Stan didn't have time to brace himself, and was knocked completely over. He stared at her on his chest. "It can't be…"

She giggled. "It's me, Grunkle Stan. I'm a ghost now, woooooo!"

He put a hand to the side of her face, gently, like she might disappear again. "Mabel?"

She nodded again, beaming.

For a moment he just stared in disbelief. Then a smile, showing every last one of his teeth. "MABEL!" he yelled, crushing her in a massive hug. "It's really you!"

Mabel just laughed as he stood up and swung her around. "I missed you so much, you little gremlin!" he said, punctuating each word with a scratchy kiss on her cheeks.

"Missed you too, Grunkle Stan." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Missed all of you!"

Ford didn't say anything, he just burst into tears and wrapped his arms around her and Stan. Wendy was jumping around like a madwoman, occasionally rubbing her hair. "Heck yeah, Mabel, way to kick death's butt!"

Soos just grinned and patted her shoulder. "Knew you weren't gone for good, hambone. Can't keep a cool kid like you down."

"Soos, as usual, your wisdom exceeds us all." Mabel said, winking and doing the finger guns.

She and Dipper spent a while explaining to them everything that had happened, while the others filled in all the details about everything Mabel had missed. The whole time, Stan refused to let go of her. At one point, Soos looked like he was going in to take her for himself, and Stan had actually growled at him with bared teeth. Mabel didn't mind.

The personality halves of the Pines Twins had each other back.


	5. Chapter 5

Mabel's parents had been confused, but that was nothing compared to the joy of realizing they had their little girl back. After a long explanation, there was no question what came next. Of course they were moving to Gravity Falls. It took a while to put everything in order, but by the time next summer rolled around, they had moved in to the new house, just a ten-minute drive from Mabel's new home.

Ford, Stan, and Dipper had stuck around all that time. That was at the insistence of both Stan and Dipper (although it wasn't like Ford had needed much convincing). They were sticking around with Mabel until they were sure she was taken care of.

It had taken a long time to convince Stan to go with them. He had been even more stubborn than Dipper about leaving Mabel's side. "Just got you back, sweetie, do you really think I'm gonna risk something happening to ya while I'm not around?" When Mabel reminded him that she had already kicked the bucket, how much more could possibly happen, he would just clam up and shake his head.

Eventually, though, Mabel wore him down. There were benefits to being even more stubborn than he was. Ford pretended that he was as supportive of one choice as he was the other, but Mabel could tell he was a little relieved. He needed Stan more than Mabel did right now.

So, at the end of next summer, with a hundred promises to text, write, and email whenever possible, they set off. Mabel and Ford had cried a little. Dipper had cried a lot. Stan cried the most.

It wasn't as bad as she had been secretly dreading. There was a lot to keep her busy. First, there was just educating her parents into this new world. They took to it pretty well (they had raised Mabel, after all), but there was still a lot of ground to cover. There was figuring out her own limits, and her own powers. She had Grenda, Candy, and Wendy to hang out with (Grenda had offered to start kidnapping boys for her to flirt with, but Mabel thought that might be taking it a little far). Soos visited a lot too, but not as much. He was busy with running the Mystery Shack, after all.

When Dipper had time to visit, he would tell her all about his adventures around the world. In turn, Mabel would tell him stories about the afterlife. Though he hadn't asked, she made a point to assure him that no, there were no replacement brothers there, but there were things like rainbow-coloured circus cannons and hot chocolate volcanoes.

Pacifica started to visit a few months in. It had started out…really awkward. But, as time went on, they had developed a rapport. They were never going to be best friends (that title was reserved for Waddles, who now lived permanently in Mabel's grove) but they had become a lot closer. Pacifica was actually pretty funny, in her own way. She started to come hang out whenever her parents got to be a little…much. It was slow-going, but they were adjusting to life among the peasants.

Gideon came too. More often, maybe, than Mabel would have liked. But Gideon had grown up a lot over the year. True, he was still a pompous little man, but he did show genuine signs of wanting to change, to be better. It was rare visits with him didn't end in some kind of shouting match, but they were learning. In time, it might come to be how they had been before Gideon had gone all date happy.

She also had a new job: a sought after relationship advice specialist. Not just for the humans of Gravity Falls, but the monsters too. Wendy had put up the posters for her. "Mabel's Guide to Dating" it had said in big, glittery letters. "Got a problem with that special someone? Come crying to me about it! (note: squirrel clients no longer accepted)". She had a real racket going, especially with the gnomes, who came every week to ask about the queen potential in some new girl they had spotted. Strangely enough, even though they had recognized her, they didn't seem to pay much mind to her being dead.

Sure, there were bad days. Days when Mabel felt like she would go crazy if she had to look at the same trees every single morning. Days where she would look at Dipper's letters and just burst in to tears, wanting more than anything in the world to be with him.

Days where she would look at the changing bodies of her friends, then look down at the body that was now too young for the mind that inhabited it. Dipper was researching the possibility of changing her appearance, but so far nothing had turned up.

Days where Grenda would spend hours talking about Marius and Candy about her latest crush, and Mabel would sit there and come to terms with the very real possibility that her first kiss could end up being her only kiss. Relationships could prove a little difficult when you were a growing girl trapped in an almost thirteen year old body…er, spirit.

There were also times when she still felt guilty over the incident with the rift. No matter what Dipper or the others said to convince her, it seemed that deep down, she would always, at least partially, feel that it was all her fault and that she deserved to be the sole casualty of Weirdmageddon. Likewise, it seemed that Dipper still partially blamed himself for her death, even though Mabel kept trying to convince him not to.

And as Dipper had found out when he brought her back a small figurine from his travels, she would never get over her terror of statues. The only exception was the time she found Bill's statue in the woods, which she found some catharsis in teasing and mocking for a bit, even though he probably couldn't hear her. Besides that time, every single one of them always looked like they were screaming to her. She had nightmares in which the statues were her, trapped and as cold as she remembered being. This wasn't helped by the handful of times either curiosity or bravery got the better of her and she decided to phase down into her grave, finding that all that was buried there was some jagged chunks of stone. Even the carvings on her headstone could be a trigger for her on the worst days.

Today, however, wasn't one of those days.

The sun was shining, and she was sticking wildflowers in every nook and cranny of the grove she could find while half-listening to her client.

"…so anyways, this chick is about 5'2", which is really convenient for us. Y'know, short enough that she might feel a little more at home, but tall enough that she could defend us. Schmebulok spotted her and swears up and down she'd be perfect for the kingdom, isn't that right, Schmebulok?"

"Schmebulok." The grey-bearded gnome said, nodding emphatically.

"Did she scream when she saw you? You and I both know that's a huge red light." Mabel said, her tongue sticking out with concentration as she tied the last garland into place.

"No, just backed away reeeeaallll slow."

"Sound like potential." She said, waggling her eyebrows. "Now, Schmebulok. Jeff. How long have I been your counselor."

"We don't use your human time scale, Mabel, we've been over this."

"The answer's two years, Jeff, it's two years." She put a hand on the shoulders of both gnomes. "And have I ever steered you wrong?"

"Multiple times?" he looked at Schmebulok for confirmation, who nodded. "Yes, I believe multiple times, you have in fact steered us wrong."

"Well…have I steered you wrong more than 23 times?"

Jeff thought for a minute. "Wow, you're right. You haven't."

"Then listen to me when I tell you," she pulled him to her side, pointing at the sky with a clenched fist. "Be bold in your feelings, Jeff. Let her know that your love is a hat you can't wait for her to wear, a bag of unpopped popcorn you can't wait for her to stick in the microwave of eternal bliss!"

Jeff looked determined and nodded. "We'll do it, Mabel. We won't let you down!" He grabbed Schmebulok and ran out of the forest as fast as their tiny little legs could carry them.

"Yeah! Carpe Diem!" she shouted after them. "Seize the Day! Some other third thing!"

"We're gonna kidnap a woman!"

"I do not recommend that!"

"Someone's got to stop you." Said a deep voice behind her. She whipped around.

"Dipper!" she said, zooming up to the young man who had appeared in her clearing.

"Hey sis." He said, hugging her tight and grinning.

"I didn't expect you for another couple hours!"

"The tide was pretty strong today, so we got into port early." He looked around the grove, at the flowered trees and fairy lights (like, from actual fairies) she had put up. "Look at this place."

"Look at this place? Look at you!" she said, taking a few twists around him. "You've grown like a foot!"

"Can't handle it, shorty?"

"Hey, I'll always be the alpha twin." She laughed, flying up above him and noogie-ing him until he ducked away. "And is that facial hair I see?" she said, pointing to the scruff forming on his face.

"Maybe a little." He said, smugly rubbing his cheeks.

"And muscle tone, wow." She said, jabbing his arm. "Where'd my noodle arms go?"

"Noodles can't steer a ship in a storm, sis." He said, flexing dramatically before they both burst out laughing.

"Bet Pacifica loooooves it." She said, waggling her eyebrows.

"Shut up," he said, swatting at her, a faint blush rising on his cheeks.

"She couldn't stop asking about you, you know. Every day: 'did you get a letter from Dipper?'" she said, clutching her hands over her heart and batting her eyelashes. "'Not that I care of course, but how is that handsome brother of yours?'"

"Shut up!" he said, his entire face bright red now.

"When are you gonna kiss her, hmmm?"

"When are you gonna mind your own business, hmmm?"

"Never." She said, clinging to his upper arm and rubbing her face into it. "I'm gonna be up in your stuff for the rest of your life, bro."

Dipper smiled, and tousled her hair. "Come on, let's go head back home. Everyone's waiting."

"You have any good stories for me?" she said, as they walked on.

"Five zombie sphinxes sound good enough?"

"Maybe." She said, leaning into him and smiling.

There were bad days, yes. Mabel had figured out though, that there would've been bad days no matter what had happened that day. That was growing up, that was life: some really crappy days, and some really good ones.

Thanks to this family and this crazy town, though, she saw a lot of the really good ones on her horizon.


End file.
